What is the amCharts Interactive Chart Maker?

Updated

The amCharts Interactive Chart Maker (live.amcharts.com) is a free online tool for building interactive charts and maps without writing code. You pick a template, paste your data, style it visually, then export a PNG, embed it, or publish it. It fits anyone who needs a presentable chart quickly — analysts, students, marketers, journalists — and who would rather not set up a charting library or write JavaScript. If you need full programmatic control or deep integration into an app, a code-based library will serve you better; if you just need a chart to look right and go somewhere, this is the faster path.

How it works

The workflow is three steps, and the site's own framing keeps it that literal:

  1. Pick a template from the gallery (line, column, pie, map, and so on).
  2. Paste your data — the maker accepts tabular input such as CSV.
  3. Style it visually, then export PNG, embed, or publish.

No coding step sits between those. The page also notes a "Setup took five minutes flat," which matches the intended use: quick turnaround rather than a build pipeline.

What you can make

The template library is broad. Grouped by family:

Family Examples
Line & Area Line, Spline, Area, Stacked Area, 100% Stacked Area, Range Area, Step Line, Threshold Line, Bump Chart, Scrollbar with Preview, Multiple Value Axes
Column & Bar Column, Stacked Column, 100% Stacked Column, Clustered Column, Horizontal Bar, Waterfall, Lollipop, Dumbbell, Population Pyramid, Pareto, Bullet, Column & Line
XY & Scatter Scatter Plot, Bubble Chart
Pie & Donut Pie, Donut, Nested Pie, Semi-circle Pie
Funnel & Pyramid Funnel, Pyramid, Pictorial
Maps World, US, Choropleth, Bubble, Connection, Flow, Pin, Globe, US States, UK Counties
Hierarchy Treemap, Sunburst, Force-Directed, Packed Circles, Partition, Voronoi Treemap, Tree Diagram
Flow Sankey, Chord, Arc, Directed Chord
Radar & Polar Radar, Polar Scatter, Radial Histogram, Nightingale Rose, Angular Gauge, Solid Gauge
Candlestick & OHLC Candlestick, OHLC, Box Plot
Timeline Serpentine Timeline, Spiral Timeline
Word Cloud Word Cloud, Shaped Word Cloud, Angled Word Cloud, Sentence Cloud
Miscellaneous Venn Diagram

That range covers most everyday charting needs — comparison, composition, distribution, flow, geography, and hierarchy — in one place.

Output and sharing

Three exits are offered: export PNG, embed, or publish. The page highlights that "the export keeps my formatting" and "sharing is one link," so a styled chart survives the trip out and can be handed to someone as a single URL. There's also a dark mode, which matters if the chart will sit on a dark page or slide.

When to use it — and when not to

Use it when:

  • You need a chart or map now and don't want to code.
  • Your data is already tabular (CSV or similar) and just needs a visual form.
  • You want a shareable link or an embeddable graphic rather than a file you maintain in a repo.
  • You want to try several chart types before committing to one.

Look elsewhere when:

  • You need the chart wired into a live application or updated programmatically.
  • You need pixel-level control over every element.
  • Your data can't leave your machine or must stay inside your own infrastructure.

Practical notes

  • Start from the closest template, not from a blank canvas — the gallery is organized by chart family, so matching your data shape to a family first saves restyling later.
  • Check your data shape against the chart type. A Sankey or chord diagram expects source–target relationships, while a pie expects parts of a whole; pasting the wrong shape is the most common reason a chart looks broken.
  • Decide the output before you style. If the chart will be embedded, match its background and fonts to the host page; if it will be a PNG, dark mode may be the better choice.
  • Publishing gives you a link, which is the simplest way to share a chart with someone who doesn't need to edit it.

For a quick, no-code route from a data table to a finished interactive chart or map, this tool covers the common cases and gives you a link or image at the end.